[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 71 (Wednesday, June 7, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1030-E1031]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 IN RECOGNITION OF LEW TODD ON THE OCCASION OF THE 20TH ANNIVERSARY OF 
  THE ENACTMENT OF NEW YORK CITY'S LANDMARK LESBIAN AND GAY RIGHTS LAW

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. CAROLYN B. MALONEY

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, June 7, 2006

  Mrs. MALONEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to Mr. Lew Todd, an 
outstanding New Yorker who has devoted himself to his community, his 
city and his country throughout his life. Lew Todd is not just a 
leader, but a pioneering figure in the history of New York City's gay, 
lesbian, bisexual and transgender, GLBT, community, the largest of any 
city in our Nation. This month, his leadership is being honored by the 
Stonewall Democratic Club at a ceremony commemorating the 20th 
anniversary of the passage into law of New York City's landmark gay 
rights bill.
  A proud veteran, Lew Todd served his Nation with honor in the United 
States Navy during the Korean war. Always dedicated to serving others, 
he made his home in New York City following his return stateside, and 
devoted his energies to his work and his community. He operated several 
small businesses, becoming a significant entrepreneur in the restaurant 
and nightlife industry in lower Manhattan in the 1970s and 1980s.
  Continuously involved in the struggle for lesbian and gay rights in 
the modern era that traces its origins to Greenwich Village, Lew Todd 
joined the Gay Activists Alliance in 1970, before the first anniversary 
of the Stonewall riots. Lew Todd quickly became a regular at the 
Firehouse, the Alliance's legendary headquarters in lower Manhattan's 
historic Soho neighborhood, which became New York's first GLBT 
community center.
  At the Gay Activists Alliance, Lew Todd emerged as a talented, 
determined and inspirational leader of a freshly budding branch of the 
civil rights movement. His political, organizational and business 
skills became an indispensable part of its planning and operations. In 
1970 and 1971, he and his fellow activist and friend, the late Morty 
Manford, traveled the country as emissaries for the new gay rights 
movement, teaching other activists how to establish their own civil 
rights advocacy organizations.
  In its nascent phase, the gay and lesbian rights movement could only 
succeed in making its voice heard by engaging in civil disobedience and 
staging colorful, attention-getting and frequently disruptive 
demonstrations. Lew Todd's sheer courage, as well as his larger-than-
life physical presence, served as an anchor of strength in many such 
actions. At one notable event in 1972, Lew Todd and a young activist 
named Allen Roskoff, dressed to the nines in suits and ties, took to 
the dance floor at the elegant Rainbow Room atop Rockefeller Center. 
This action provoked a vivid demonstration of the outdated and 
blatantly discriminatory nature of the city's public accommodation 
laws, garnering considerable media attention that helped effect their 
eventual demise. That same year, Lew Todd placed gay rights on the 
national agenda as an official gay rights lobbyist at the Democratic 
National Convention. Thanks to his efforts, for the first time in 
America history a major national political party was forced to consider 
the rights of gay and lesbian Americans and include their concerns in 
its platform.
  A visionary as well as a pioneer, Lew Todd possessed the ability to 
recognize and acknowledge the need for the growing and maturing civil 
rights movement to adopt new strategies and new tactics. As government, 
business and the news media began to take heed, Lew Todd saw that the 
gay rights movement would need to employ negotiation and painstaking 
political organizing in order to more effectively achieve its goals. 
Inspired to open this new front in the struggle despite the objections 
of less far-seeing radical activists, Lew Todd became one of the 
founders of the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force. It was the first 
truly Nation-wide gay rights organization to rely more on negotiation 
and organization than an confrontation. He went on to found many of New 
York City's most important GLBT political organizations, including Gay 
& Lesbian Independent Democrats and the influential citywide Stonewall 
Democratic Club, on whose executive board he has served since its 
founding 21 years ago. In its first years of operation, he served as a 
board member and treasurer for the Hetrick-Martin Institute, which 
operates the Harvey Milk School for GLBT youths. In 1984 he played a 
key role in convincing New York City to sell the building that

[[Page E1031]]

today houses New York City's Lesbian and Gay Community Services Center. 
In 1992, Lew Todd served as a delegate to the Democratic National 
Convention as an early supporter of a promising candidate named Bill 
Clinton.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask that my distinguished colleagues join me in 
recognizing the enormous contributions to civic and political life made 
by Lew Todd, a true pioneer and civil rights activist in the finest 
traditions of our great republic.

                          ____________________